On Cabot House

We find the recently announced choice of the name "Thomas Dudley and Virginia Wellington Cabot House" for South House inappropriate. Since South House has, of course, direct historical ties, to Radcliffe College, it seemed reasonable to expect that if and when it gained a proper name, it might well be the name of a Radcliffe graduate, a women who had gained prominence in her own field of endeavor and in her own right. We realize that most women of the generation of Thomas Dudley Cabot would not have had the opportunity to achieve the sort of financial status which would enable them to contribute vast them, but nevertheless we had hoped that the administration of Radcliffe and Harvard Colleges might have recognized the importance of honoring a distinguished woman on the basis of her lifetime achievement. Surely the Radcliffe Board of Trustees does not wish to imply that there have been no Radcliffe graduates deserving of such recognition.

We are certainly appreciate of the Cabots' many contributions to Harvard and are pleased that such an esteemed family has already been justly honored by the naming of the Cabot Science Complex. Cabot Library, and our own Cabot Hall here at South House. We feel, however, that it is important to honor those Radcliffe alumnae whose achievements have not yet been thus acknowledged. Lisa Hunter '85   Anne Nesbet   Branwen N. Gregory '85   Susan R. Grayzel '85   Ruthanna Hooke '85